Published: August 26, 2013 at 10:00 am

Is CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) a sell? One group of investors seems to think so.

To the average investor, there are plenty of indicators market participants can use to analyze publicly traded companies. Some of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can trounce the market by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as key, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. Obviously, there are many incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this tactic if piggybackers understand what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to examine the latest info for CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX).

Hedge fund activity in CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX)

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 25 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -22% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Mason Hawkins’s Southeastern Asset Management had the most valuable position in CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX), worth close to $654.8 million, accounting for 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Bill Miller of Legg Mason Capital Management, with a $56.7 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.

As CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) has witnessed dropping sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedgies who were dropping their entire stakes in Q1. Interestingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management said goodbye to the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds we track, valued at close to $23.7 million in stock, and Bruce J. Richards and Louis Hanover of Marathon Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $20.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 7 funds in Q1.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the latest six-month time period, CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX). These stocks are Central Fund of Canada Limited (USA) (NYSEAMEX:CEF), Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU), Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd (NYSE:TRQ), Yanzhou Coal Mining Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:YZC), and Cameco Corporation (USA) (NYSE:CCJ). This group of stocks are the members of the industrial metals & minerals industry and their market caps are similar to CNX’s market cap.

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